Television.

`The Unexplained' Just The Latest Chapter In Peter Graves' Career

October 22, 1994|By Thomas D. Elias, Scripps-Howard News Service.

HOLLYWOOD — Peter Graves is one of those Hollywood rarities who has been married longer than five years, admires sensible shows like the "Biography" series he hosts on the Arts & Entertainment cable network and loves "the thrill of acting in a fine screenplay."

So what is he doing as host of NBC-Ch. 5's pre-Halloween special "The Unexplained: Witches, Werewolves & Vampires . . . Are They Real?" (6 p.m. Sunday)? The answer is simple: Having fun and making money.

"We'll have some new slants on all this," says Graves, the 68-year-old one-time star of "Mission: Impossible" and myriad other movies and TV shows. "Some will be scary and some will be tongue in cheek. We don't want to take ourselves too seriously, but we will examine some strange stories."

Among them is the tale of John George High, an Englishman who cut a wide swath through London in the 1930s, slitting carotid arteries and drinking the blood that flowed from them. Was he a vampire? "I don't know," says Graves. "But he loved the taste of blood, and people who crave blood are not uncommon in this world."

The show also sent a camera to Salem, Mass., for a Sept. 21 equinoctial celebration by a modern coven of witches.

Does Graves believe in any of this? He's not sure. "I can't say I've seen UFOs or ghosts flying about at midnight. But I'm amazed enough by what happens so that this wouldn't surprise me. Besides that, it's fun."

Fun. That's Graves' word for much of his career in show business.

There have been days with emotional highs, like the first time he was recognized by fans while walking down the Champs Elysee in Paris. And there were the days when he performed in comical and strange movie scenes.

The most memorable? It might have been the time during shooting of "The Long Grey Line" when director John Ford ordered prop men to find real horse manure to replace the faux manure they'd crafted from mud and sawdust and piled 10 feet high for Graves and Tyrone Power to wrestle in.

But talk to Peter Graves more than five minutes and you'll learn he thinks the real highlight of his life has been his 44-year marriage to his wife, Joan.

The two met while reading for a play in the drama department at the University of Minnesota. "I wouldn't dare or presume to say for anyone else what makes a marriage last," Graves says, "but I think basic love has everything to do with it. You have to understand and like each other."